


picking up the pieces

by rythyme (pugglemuggle)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Amnesty - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Misses Clause Challenge, Post-Canon, Restoration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:07:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21870538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pugglemuggle/pseuds/rythyme
Summary: It takes Billy a year to build a new portal between Earth and Sylvaine. A year is a long time, but Aubrey and Dani have more than enough work to keep them busy.Or, a series of vignettes as Aubrey and Dani begin the long process of restoring Sylvaine to her former glory.
Relationships: Dani/Aubrey Little
Comments: 13
Kudos: 29
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	picking up the pieces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [steepedinwords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/steepedinwords/gifts).



> Hey! Thanks for requesting this! I was really touched by the Amnesty finale and was excited to expand a little on post-canon. I hope you like it!
> 
> This story was brought to you in part by: my 1.5-hour commute. I've been powering through a lot of podcasts lately, and probably wouldn't have finished the podcast in time for Yuletide without those long bus rides.

**Six Days After**

Healing Sylvaine will take time.

The planet is little more than ruins. After years of apocalyptic devastation, everything outside of Chicane is a monument to the chaos that ravaged the land without Sylvaine to balance the Quell’s ferality. Buildings lie toppled and overgrown, homes are looted bare, and roads wander aimlessly towards destinations that no longer exist. Everything that remains is a reminder of what was lost.

“It’s quiet,” Dani says, looking out over the fallow field before them. “It wasn’t, before.”

“I know,” Aubrey murmurs. She isn’t sure what else to say, so she takes Dani’s hand and stands close to her side. “I know.”

Beyond this field is another field just like it—and another, and another. Aubrey watches Dani’s eyes grow bright under the overcast sky and vows, not for the first time, to fix this. She has the power. She can do this.

When the tears spill down Dani’s cheeks, Aubrey squeezes her hand a little tighter. It’s a comforting gesture, but it’s also a promise. 

Sylvaine will not stay in ruins. She will grow.

**Forty-Four Days After**

Emergency food and supply lines are effective for short-term disaster relief, but it’s been three months since the Quell receded. Sylvaine needs permanent solutions.

Yesterday, the swathes of land before them were covered in wild vines and brambles. Now most of the Quell’s invasive underbrush have been sent back into the earth, clearing the land for native flora or harvestable crops. 

Aubrey waves her arms across one of the empty fields before her, drawing up rows of carrots and potatoes from the earth. The green leaves poke up hesitantly at first, like little animals sticking their heads out of their burrows after an especially harsh winter.  _ It’s okay _ , Aubrey tells them.  _ We’re safe now _ . She coaxes a little more energy into their roots and leaves and soon enough they sprout to their full potential. 

Behind her, a group of sylph children have been watching her all day. They were more reserved in their excitement at first, but now they follow her around like a little hoard of ducklings, clapping their hands together and chattering excitedly whenever new plants appear. Aubrey smiles. They make a great hype crew.

Dani checks off another box on her list. “We’ve finished root veggies,” she says. “Now all that’s left is the fruit.”

“Got it,” says Aubrey. They walk a few yards through the farmland, their posse in tow, to stop beside the next empty plot. “What d’you say, kids?” She asks. “Apples? Tangerines? Peaches?”

Each fruit gets its fair share of shoutouts, and Aubrey holds up her hands placatingly. “Okay, okay. I’ll just make all of them.”

With a touch of magic she pulls an orchard from the ground, each sapling a fusion of different fruit trees growing from the same trunk. Here, a tree with half the branches bearing apples, half bearing oranges. There, a tree with apples at the top and peaches on the bottom. In front goes a tree with all three. The kids squeal with glee. 

“Miss Aubrey?” says a soft voice. A child tugs at Aubrey’s pant leg, looking up at her with wide eyes. 

“What’s up, kiddo?”

“Can we have rainbow fruit too?”

“Rainbow fruit?” Aubrey crouches down to get at the kid’s eye level. “What’s that?”

The child shrugs.

“Okay. Rainbow fruit…” Aubrey nods. “I’ll see what I can do.”

With a flick of her wrist, she draws another branch out from the nearest tree, using magic to tug at the plant fibers closer until it drops an iridescent plum-sized fruit into her palm. 

“Here. How’s this?” Aubrey asks, handing the fruit to the child. The child holds the fruit wonderingly, tilting it in the sunlight to watch the colors shift. 

“It’s pretty,” the child says. They take a bite, the fruit’s skin breaking to reveal layers of bright, colorful fruit underneath. The child looks back up to Aubrey and beams. “It’s sweet!”

“Glad you like it, kiddo.” Aubrey gives the child a pat on the head.

“They really like you,” Dani says later as they walk back to their beds in the nearest town. The sun is setting, and most of the kids are still frolicking in their village’s new orchard. 

“I think any kid would like me if I gave them a bunch of magic fruit,” Aubrey replies. “It’s just the magic powers. Kids love magic powers.”

Dani tilts her head. “I think you’re selling yourself short.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Dani laces their fingers together. “I don’t think it’s the magic. I think you’re good with kids.”

“Good with kids…” Aubrey repeats. “I guess I can live with that.”

**Ninety-Eight Days After**

Assessing the damage on a global scale is a feat in and of itself. The further they travel from Chicane, the emptier the world becomes. The magnitude of the damage to Sylvaine is almost too much to fathom. There are days when they see nothing but ruined town after town, thousands of communities simply wiped from existence. But there are good days, too. 

It’s dusk, and they've been walking along an empty crystal beach for a couple days now. The sea is both like and unlike the oceans Aubrey knew on earth. It rolls and foams and leaps just like the tides she remembers, but this water seems to flow a little differently, as though its waltz with the moon swings to a foreign tempo. Above them, the stars are beginning to blink awake, peeking through the twilight-blue heavens. The night air is cool, and the crystalline sand beneath their feet is unexpectedly warm. Between the gentle melody of the waves and the smell of salt in the air, Aubrey feels more at ease than she’s felt since she stepped off that space ship. Elation bubbles up in her chest.

“Hey, Dani,” Aubrey said. She turns around to face her girlfriend, walking backwards in the sand. “Wanna do something fun?”

Dani raises an eyebrow, but she’s smiling. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, I was thinking…” She reaches for Dani’s hand. “Dance with me?”

“What, here?” Dani laughs, but curls her fingers around Aubrey’s all the same.

“Hey—beaches are romantic. And dancing is romantic.” She takes Dani’s other hand. “We’re also definitely the best dancers here, so.”

“And the worst dancers.”

Aubrey shrugs. “Can’t win it all.”

It becomes clear after the first couple clumsy steps that neither of them actually know how to dance, but Aubrey isn’t planning on stopping. They sway and twirl and giggle in each other’s arms with nothing but the moon and stars to see by. After the second time she steps on Dani’s toes because of the dim light, she reaches down into that swirling pool of magic that runs through everything in this beautiful broken little world and wills a small flock of dancing rosy lights into existence around them. The lights illuminate the crystalline sand and refract in every possible direction, covering the beach in warm glittering light. 

“Aubrey,” Dani breathes. She smiles as she gazes around them wonderingly. “Aubrey, this is— _ beautiful. _ ”

“Yeah,” Aubrey agrees, watching the shimmering light glow in Dani’s eyes. “It really is.”

**One Hundred and Forty-Seven Days After**

They’re scouting out a place to build the newest colony when they find the settlement.

At first, Aubrey doesn’t believe what she’s seeing. They’re a hundred miles from Chicane traveling west through the remains of an old-growth forest when they spot movement. Aubrey freezes, eyes homing in on the figure standing in a clearing up ahead—and then she spots a second figure. And the third. And the fourth, and fifth. 

“Aubrey,” Dani whispers. “Is this—”

“Hello?” Aubrey calls.

The figures turn, and Aubrey can see them more clearly now—a group of rabbit people, eyes wide and ears pressed flat against their heads. In an instant, they scurry away out of view.

“No, wait! I won’t hurt you!” Aubrey rushes into the clearing, spinning the magic around her into a glittering aura of tiny orange crystals that she hopes are more reassuring than threatening. “I’m Sylvaine. See? I can make these crystals ‘n stuff.”

The rabbit people pause in their escape, hesitating outside the entrance to one of the dozen or so holes dotting the grassy clearing. No, not holes—burrows. Holy shit.  _ Holy shit _ . Aubrey lets out a slow, wondering breath and blinks back a sudden wave of emotion.

“My name is Aubrey,” she says, completely unable to keep from smiling, “and I’m here to help.”

It’s the first surviving settlement they find outside of Chicane. It won’t be the last.

**Two-Hundred and Thirteen Days After**

“I miss Netflix,” Aubrey says, lying next to Dani in their tent. She’s been trying to entertain herself by bouncing a little ball of flame between her fingers. “And I miss video games. And the internet.”

“Yeah. Those were pretty nice,” Dani agrees. She scoots closer under the blankets to snuggle into Aubrey’s side. “We never got to finish watching Game of Thrones.”

“Or Harry Potter,” Aubrey adds. “I only showed you up to the fifth movie.”

“Right.”

“I’ll have to ask for those when we visit,” Aubrey says, because it is a  _ when _ , not an  _ if _ . Billy has been working on making some kind of portal that they can use every now and then to visit friends on the other side. It’s only a matter of time before it’s up and running.

“I miss them,” Dani whispers after a long moment. 

The tent is warm, and the soft sounds of trees rustling gently overhead is comforting. Aubrey snuffs her little flame out between her fingers and shifts to a more optimal cuddling position. “Yeah,” she murmurs. “I miss them too.”

**Two-Hundred and Eighty-Nine Days After**

Aubrey has a plan for Colony Twenty-Seven.

The place they chose used to be a city in the mountain, half clinging to the mountainside and half burrowing within it. Most of the structures have long since tumbled down into the valley below, but Thacker was able to draw out a rough estimation of what the architecture used to be like here. Some of his sketches remind Aubrey of a big, round ski lodge, which makes her think of Mount Kepler Ski Trails Park, which makes her think of pizza and french fries. She shakes her head. Not now, brain. It’s time to focus.

All she has to do is recreate Thacker’s sketches.

Aubrey closes her eyes and reaches for the magic of Sylvaine that has become almost as familiar to her as her heartbeat. She raises her hands slowly into the air, and roots delve down into the rocky earth of the mountainside as she wills massive tree trunks to rise up from barren cliff face, reaching up and up and hollowing around room and chambers and twisting and knotting together to form bridges that span from structure to structure and Aubrey’s arms are fully extended now, palms facing the heavens, and the treetop village is complete.

Aubrey turns to look at Dani, who’s staring at her. “Pretty cool, huh?” she says with a grin.

Dani kisses her. 

“You’re—amazing,” she murmurs against Aubrey’s lips. “I can’t believe I’m the one you—”

“Of course you’re the one I love,” Aubrey interrupts her. “You’re like, the most incredible girl I’ve ever met.”

“Says the literal goddess.”

“Hey. If I’m a goddess, then I made pretty good choices, right?” She puts her arms around Dani’s waist and pulls her closer. “And I choose you. So you must be pretty great, too.”

They kiss a second time. And a third time. 

There are more colonies to build, more sylphs to rehouse, more places to restore. They will get there, one day at a time.

**Three Hundred and Fifty-Five Days After**

Billy finishes the portal just a few days before the one-year anniversary of Sylvaine’s freedom. 

It’s been almost a year since Aubrey set foot on earth—a year since she looked up at a familiar moon, or retweeted a funny meme, or ate Taco Bell. It’s also been a year since she saw Duck and Mama and everyone else they left behind in Kepler. God, she’s missed them all so much.

“You ready, kiddo?” Thacker asks, putting a hand on her shoulder. Aubrey grins.

“I was born ready,” she replies. 

Dani is at her other side, her arm resting around Aubrey’s waist. Around them, Sylvaine is flourishing. The meadow where the new portal has been placed is green and bright and covered with wildflowers. A cool breeze sweeps across the open space, lifting leaves and flower petals to dance with air that smells like rain and earth and new beginnings. Magic thrums through every little blade of grass in this world, every cloud, every stone, and every day it gets stronger. She did that. She helped make that happen.

At midday, the portal blinks open right on time. There’s a crackling of blue-white energy and then a little tear in reality yawns awake to reveal a closet on the other side.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Aubrey says, looking between Dani and Thacker. “Let’s go.”

Together, they step through the hazy blue entrance. Their mission in Sylvaine is far from finished. It’s hard work, but with Dani at her side, it barely feels like it. The longer they work, the more people they can help, and the closer Sylvaine gets to thriving once again. 

They’ll be back soon—and when they are, Sylvaine will welcome them home. 


End file.
